It is common to inject brine or similar fluids into meat products for purposes of preservation and flavoring. Many machines have been devised which have a battery of reciprocal needles which are adapted to penetrate meat products and are adapted to inject fluid into the meat products through the needles.
Existing machines have a tendency to waste the injected fluid and lack the ability to effectively and uniformly inject fluid into the meat product, particularly when variations in thickness of the meat product exists. These machines emit fluid from all needles even if some needles do not engage the meat product. In addition, existing machines have gang stripper plates that can damage the meat product, and most are often difficult to clean. Further, they have not taken full advantage of computer technology to enhance their operation and efficiency.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method and machine for injecting fluids into food products which will not waste the fluid being injected, and which will not damage the meat.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method and means for injecting food products which will automatically and uniformly inject fluid into a piece of meat which varies in thickness.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method and machine for injecting fluid into meat products wherein each needle injects fluid independently of other needles, and wherein each needle has its own stripper element.
A further object of this invention is to provide a machine for injecting fluid into food products which is easily cleaned.
A further object of the invention is to provide a machine for injecting fluid into meat products wherein the amount of fluid injected is proportional to the volume of meat injected.
A further object of the invention is, in an alternative embodiment, to provide a machine for injecting fluid into meat products wherein the amount of fluid injected is controlled by a microprocessor which through a variable speed motor can slow down or speed up the time that the injection needles are in the meat product, thus controlling the amount of fluid that is injected into the meat product.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.